Purpose We aimed to develop normative growth curves for articulation rate during sentence repetition for typically developing children. Our primary goal was the development of quantile/percentile growth curves so that typical variation in articulation rate with age could be estimated. We also estimated when children became adultlike in their articulation rate, and we examined the contributions of age and utterance length to articulation rate. Method This cross-sectional study involved collection of in-person speech samples from 570 typically developing children (297 girls; 273 boys) who passed speech, language, and hearing screening measures. Pauses greater than 150 ms in duration were removed from the samples, and articulation rate was measured in syllables per second (sps). Results Articulation rate reliably increased with age and utterance length. Rate in all key percentiles increased with age. The median rate (50th percentile) increased from 2.7 sps at 36 months to 3.3 sps at 96 months. The 5th percentile increased from 2.3 to 3.1 sps over the same age range. Using 3.2 sps as a benchmark for adultlike speech, we found the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles reached adultlike rates at 99, 75, and 53 months, respectively. Conclusions Articulation rate increases from early childhood into middle childhood, and it is generally adultlike by 10 years of age. Variability in articulation rate among typical children was substantial. Implications for prior research and for clinical usage are discussed.

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Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between functional communication skills, underlying speech, language, and cognitive impairments and school-based speech pathology services in students with cerebral palsy (CP). Method: Thirty-five participants with CP who had Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) were classified according to the Communication Function Classification System (CFCS). Participants completed laboratory assessments of speech, receptive language, executive functioning, and nonverbal cognition. Each participant's speech and language IEP goals were coded into treatment units and then categorized into seven, mutually exclusive target goal areas. Nonparametric analyses were employed to examine differences among CFCS groups in the number of deficit areas and the number of goal areas from the IEP. Descriptive analyses were used to evaluate the extent to which deficit and goal areas in the IEP co-occurred by CFCS level. Results: Those in more involved CFCS levels demonstrated more severe speech, receptive language, and cognitive impairments. However, there were no significant differences in the number of deficit areas across CFCS groups. Regardless of CFCS level, there were no differences in the number of treatment goals specified in the IEP. Literacy was the only goal area addressed across all CFCS levels. Those in the most involved CFCS levels had augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) goals, but those with more moderate restrictions in functional communication who also had markedly reduced speech intelligibility did not typically have speech or AAC goals. Interpretation: Individuals with CP across CFCS levels demonstrate variability in underlying deficit profiles, suggesting that measures of both functional communication and of underlying deficits are necessary to provide a complete picture of communication needs. Literacy goals were common across all CFCS levels, but AAC goals were limited to the most severely involved individuals, suggesting that continuing education may be necessary to support speech-language pathologists in developing treatments involving the integration of AAC and speech to foster functional communication at school. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16968073

Purpose: The aim of this study was to quantify the clinical utility of the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) English version by characterizing the growth patterns of the ICS composite scores and seven ICS individual item scores of typically developing American English–speaking children. Method: Parents of 545 typically developing children aged 2;6–9;11 (years;months) completed the ICS. Using a proportional odds model, we regressed ICS composite scores on age and computed for model-estimated mean and lower quantile ICS composite scores. Logistic regression and proportional odds modeling were utilized to quantify the relationship of individual ICS items and age. Results: ICS composite scores of typically developing children changed with age, but change was small and incremental, with scores compressed between 3 and 5 across the range of ages. An average child (i.e., on the 50th percentile) is expected to have an ICS composite score of 4 beginning at 3;0 and an ICS composite score of 5 by 6;6. On average, parents gave different intelligibility ratings based on communicative partners, and the rating differences between communicative partners decreased with age. Conclusions: Given that ICS scores increase with age, the expected score for average children also increases. A child's age is a main factor for interpreting ICS scores.

The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) is a widely used, efficient tool for describing a child’s speech intelligibility. Few studies have explored the relationship between ICS scores and transcription intelligibility scores, which are the gold standard for clinical measurement. This study examined how well ICS composite scores predicted transcription intelligibility scores among children with cerebral palsy (CP), how well individual questions from the ICS differentially predicted transcription intelligibility scores, and how well the ICS composite scores differentiated between children with and without speech motor impairment. Parents of 48 children with CP, who were approximately 13 years of age, completed the ICS. Ninety-six adult naïve listeners provided orthographic transcriptions of children’s speech. Transcription intelligibility scores were regressed on ICS composite scores and individual item scores. Dysarthria status was regressed on ICS composite scores. Results indicated that ICS composite scores were moderately strong predictors of transcription intelligibility scores. One individual ICS item differentially predicted transcription intelligibility scores, and dysarthria severity influenced how well ICS composite scores differentiated between children with and without speech motor impairment. Findings suggest that the ICS has potential clinical utility for children with CP, especially when used with other objective measures of speech intelligibility.